With
teams based in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire,
the Futures Collegiate League plays in the formidable shadow cast by
both the Cape Cod and New England Collegiate Leagues—two of the
nation’s elite summer college circuits. But the nine-team league,
which just finished its third year of operation, continues to carve
out its own identity, both on the field and at the box office.

Even
as the league mandates that at least 50 percent of its talent must
have ties to New England, the league has diligently mined the area
for players that have largely been overlooked by other leagues and
even the scouting community, while also broadening its recruiting
reach nationally. Fourteen of the top 16 players on the accompanying
list of the league’s top prospects have roots in New England,
including five that were plucked right out of high schools in the
region.

For
all of the league’s apparent emphasis on youth this summer, the two
top prospects overall, somewhat curiously, are both rising red-shirt
college seniors who played for the Brockton Rox and will be 23 years
old by the time the 2014 draft rolls around. But even scouts who
frequented the league admitted it was difficult to overlook the raw
speed and overall athleticism of outfielder Mitch Elliott, the
league’s No. 1 prospect, or the impressive raw arm strength of
righthander John Sheehan, ranked No. 2.

The
Martha’s Vineyard Sharks were the league’s dominant team, both in
the regular season and playoffs, and ended the two-year reign of the
Nashua Silver Knights as Futures League champion, beating the Knights
in the final. But the Sharks, with admittedly an older, more
experienced roster, had few bona-fide prospects, with only shortstop
Dylan Tice represented below.

Tice,
a rising junior at Division-II Indiana (Pa.), was named the league’s
regular-season MVP, playoff MVP and best overall defender, yet ranked
only No. 12 overall. He was at least recognized as two fellow
Pennsylvania products who also played prominent roles for Martha’s
Vineyard, outfielder Ryan Siegel (Mercyhurst), the league batting
champion at .373, and righthander Bob Carbaugh (Seton Hill), whose
eight wins were a league record, were conspicuously absent.

TOP
20 PROSPECTS1.
MITCH ELLIOTT, of, Brockton Rox (Xavier/RS-SR in 2014)With
his freakish athletic ability and the game-changing speed he
exhibited this summer in the Futures League, it defies logic why the
6-foot, 190-pound Elliott has never been drafted before—particularly
since he’ll turn 23 prior to the start of the 2014 college season.
He turned heads at the league all-star game when he was clocked in
6.37 seconds in the 60-yard dash, but his unique talent was
prominently on display all season long, in all phases of the game for
Brockton. Not only did Elliott hit .358-3-33 overall, but his
superior speed was a significant factor at the plate, on the bases
and in center field, where he ran balls down with routine ease while
also making his share of acrobatic catches. His game wasn’t all
about speed, either, as he displayed a solid gap-to-gap approach,
flashed occasional power and exhibited solid-average to plus arm
strength. So why has Elliott never been drafted? Essentially, it
stems from his inability to hit with any kind of authority in his
first three years at Xavier, including a red-shirt season when a
freshman, and a debilitating, injury-plagued 2013 campaign, stemming
from a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder, incurred while
playing last summer in the Northwoods League. The injury limited
Elliott to just nine starts and a .155 average in 58 at-bats as a
fourth-year junior at Xavier, and big-league teams were
understandably gun-shy about drafting him in June. Restored to full
health this summer in the Futures League, Elliott was a different
kind of player than at any time in his career, and should be an
attractive senior sign in the 2014 draft if he can maintain the
momentum built up this summer, although scouts say he’ll need to
continue to shorten his swing and put the ball on the ground more
consistently to better utilize his raw speed and better fulfill the
role of a leadoff hitter, and get better jumps on the bases.

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